How to output matrix dimensions together with its content?

Question

Is it possible to make GNU Octave to output matrix dimensions together with its content? For example, it should produce smth. like this:

octave:1> X = [1          


        

Answer 1

Here is another one. You could either use it to overload @double/display as others have explained, or name it something else and use it as your own custom display function:

function display(x)
    % determine whether format is loose or compect
    loose = strcmp(get(0,'FormatSpacing'), 'loose');

    % print name or ans
    name = inputname(1);
    if isempty(name), name = 'ans'; end
    if loose, disp(' '); end
    disp([name ' =']);
    if loose, disp(' '); end

    % print size
    sz = size(x);
    if length(sz) == 2
        fprintf('    %s: %d-by-%d\n', class(x), sz(1), sz(2));
    elseif length(sz) == 3
        fprintf('    %s: %d-by-%d-by-%d\n', class(x), sz(1), sz(2), sz(3));
    else
        fprintf('    %s: %d-D\n', class(x), numel(sz));
    end
    if loose, disp(' '); end

    % print array
    disp(x);
end

Note that I changed the format of the output a little bit from what you had:

>> format compact;
>> x = magic(5);
>> display(x)
x =
    double: 5-by-5
    17    24     1     8    15
    23     5     7    14    16
     4     6    13    20    22
    10    12    19    21     3
    11    18    25     2     9